DOJ Proposal in Antitrust Case Aims to Undo Google-Anthropic Partnership

The Justice Department’s proposal to resolve its antitrust case over online search against Google reportedly would force the tech giant to unwind its partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic.

A recommendation in the Justice Department’s court filing Wednesday (Nov. 20) that Google be barred from partnerships with companies that control where consumers search for information, is intended to apply to the company’s investment in Anthropic, Bloomberg reported Thursday (Nov. 21).

This move is part of a broader proposal to remedy government antitrust claims that Google criticized as “radical,” PYMNTS reported Thursday.

The proposal includes a Justice call for Google to divest its Chrome browser to answer a ruling that the company has a search market monopoly.

“DOJ had a chance to propose remedies related to the issue in this case: search distribution agreements with Apple, Mozilla, smartphone OEMs and wireless carriers,” Google said in a Thursday blog post. “Instead, DOJ chose to push a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership.”

A federal court ruled in August that Google has a monopoly on the search market, following a 2020 antitrust suit by the Justice Department.

Before the Justice Department presented its proposal to resolve the antitrust case, it was reported Wednesday that it planned to ask a judge to order Google to divest one or more core products as a way to reduce the company’s dominance in the search market.

It was reported in October 2023 that Google had invested $500 million in Anthropic and agreed to contribute another $1.5 billion over time.

During that same month, PYMNTS reported that Anthropic’s commitment to building and deploying what the company said are generative AI capabilities with stronger built-in guardrails, differentiated it from other foundational AI models on the market.

On Tuesday (Nov. 19), the U.K.’s competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), cleared Google’s partnership with Anthropic, saying that it had determined that the deal between the tech giant and the AI startup did not warrant additional investigation.

“The CMA does not believe that Google has acquired material influence over Anthropic as a result of the partnership,” the regulator said in its assessment of the arrangement.

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